Critics Accuse EPA Of Fudging The Math On Its Global Warming Rule

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The Daily Caller references a CEI study in relation to EPA's new Clean Power Plan.

A 2012 study by the free-market Competitive Enterprise Institute argued that EPA was double-counting PM2.5 reductions in its Mercury Air Toxics Standards, which was recently struck down by the Supreme Court. The study’s authors argue that PM2.5 is already regulated to the safest possible levels, thus can’t be counted towards public health benefits in other EPA rules.

“These putative co-benefits are not credible,” wrote CEI’s Marlo Lewis, William Yeatman and David Bier. “PM2.5 is already regulated under the Clean Air Act’s National Ambient Air Quality Standards program to levels ‘requisite to protect public health’ with ‘an adequate margin of safety.’”

“Almost all of the [MATS] Rule’s ‘co-benefits’ occur at areas already in compliance with the NAAQS health standard for PM 2.5,” the authors argued.